Apple's App Store Now Has a Section Just for Selfies

Apple announced that it is rolling out a new category in the App Store just for those who enjoy taking and sharing photos of themselves.

iOS owners with a penchant for selfies can now find all the apps they need in one place. The “Sharing Selfies” section in the App Store brings together apps such as Snapchat, Picr, and Frontback, which allow people to take, edit, and share informal self-portraits.

Named by Oxford English Dictionaries as the Word of the Year in 2013, the selfie was in the news after the 2014 Oscars, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. A selfie snapped by the presenter featuring Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Meryl Streep, among others, was retweeted a record 3 million times.

The mobile app market isn’t the only sector to be influenced by the trend. As selfies become more popular, smartphone makers are paying more attention to their front-facing cameras. A number of models unveiled at the latest Mobile World Congress in Barcelona—including the HTC Desire 816, the Wiko Wax, and the Huawei MediaPad X1—boast front-facing cameras with a relatively high 5 MP resolution. Other manufacturers have opted to maintain their low-resolution front cameras but have added new software features designed to improve the quality of selfies.